Thursday, October 24, 2013

Anime Review: Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya

FATE/KALEID
LINER PRISMA ILLYA: It’s fun to see the Fate characters in an entirely
different story

Fate/Kaleid
Liner Prisma Illya is an alternate universe spin-off of the Fate franchise. It
features Illyasviel von Einzbern as a typical middle school student. Well, that
seems to be the case, until a Kaleidostick chooses her as its new master,
because its old master, Tohsaka Rin, has some attitude problems. Now that Illya
has become a magical girl, she is tasked to collect the seven Class cards to
return them to the wizard Zelretch, and Tohsaka Rin has no choice but to serve
as her mentor.

I
really appreciate how this anime has reconstructed the Fate universe in a way
that would make it suitable for a Mahou Shoujo story, and how it utilized
younger versions of characters from Fate/Stay Night to strengthen the magical
impression. But looking at the story at a technical perspective, there’s not
much to it. It’s just about Illya going around hunting for the Class cards. There
are no subtle, interweaving plot points. It is very direct -- well, at least in
the first four or five episodes.

The
story does have its turns, and this is obvious in the second half of the
series. I like how the second half has given room to add emotion to the plot.
At this point, it is not just about Illya defeating one Class card to the next
monotonously. The characters have also opened for character development.

Speaking
of the characters, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya has interesting ones. They’re
not complicated enough to deserve complex psychological analyses and such, but
they are very fun characters with little conflicts in their heads to keep
things interesting enough. A good example of this is Miyu, and how she cannot
fly because she is too theoretical and lacking in imagination. This has been
contradicted to Illya’s imaginative personality, which makes it quite easy for
her to use magic. Rin, Luvia, and the talking Kaleidosticks are also very
interesting. Their interactions and conflicts are nothing complicated and deep,
but they sure are entertaining to see.

The
music is nothing special, but it does deliver in communicating the emotions
that the scenes require. As for the animation, there are certain sequences that
look marvellous, particularly in the fighting sequences, but nothing too fancy
that you could call groundbreaking -- just enough to deliver.

This
anime is very entertaining, even though the plotline doesn’t have that much
threads to weave. The genuinely comedic dialogue and actions help to
counterbalance this flaw. However, I admit that there are more other flaws in
the plot. There are instances that seem to be too random that they felt like a
cop-out, like how Illya suddenly transforms into Archer and uses Excalibur.

Illya as Archer

But
that’s alright, I wasn’t expecting a complicated story anyway. The fact that I
see the Fate characters once again, even though not in the way they were in the
original series, is a joy in itself.

But
there are subtle hints in the ending that the Fate/Stay Night characters are
not just the only characters that I’ll see in the next season. It appears that
characters from Fate/Zero will be featured as well. I could be wrong, but I
hope I’m not. Overall, I really enjoyed Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya. Seeing
the characters from the Fate franchise interacting in an entirely different
story is really entertaining, and sometimes even comedic. I’ll definitely watch
the next seasons of this anime.

About The Author

You can call me Arvin Saints, but that is not my real name. I use that name in all my legitimate social media accounts. It’s not that I don’t want to directly associate myself to the cyber world. The name is simply an inside joke among my compatriots.